The Knights' Chronicles Part 16
Quietly humming an upbeat tune, Anna smiled as her eyes closed. Twirling a damp lock of her red hair around her fingers, she made her way around a bend in the woods that she knew by heart thanks to all of her trips to the lookout tower. Without needing to open her eyes, she recognized the soft moss that covered the next stretch of her walk when her feet padded onto it.
An image of Wufei's wide-eyed and blushing face from earlier that morning came back and Fraise giggled to herself. Focused on that memory, she took the time to really study what was swirling in those dark yes of his when they woke up wound together as they had. And she could not help but find reassurance in what she saw...
Maybe... just maybe the swordsman harbored the same feelings for her that she had for him.
Before she was about to get her hopes up, Anna began crafting how she could be certain. Heero would help her get to the bottom of the matter if she asked. There were few things that Yuy and she would not do for each other. That would be her way into Wufei's way of thinking. She would just-
The snap of a twig to her left had the knight-in-training opening her eyes. But they were not quick enough to focus before something hard slammed violently into her abdomen. Falling backwards, she felt the wind rush from her lungs with a muted cry of pain just before she slammed onto the wet moss. Bouncing a couple of times, she was only vaguely aware that her quiver and bow were knocked free of her... and landed well beyond reach.
Curled on her side in searing pain as she fought for air, Fraise wheezed and coughed as her head snapped up to see the portly form standing over her. "Zuegler," she managed in a raspy breath, her eyes wide with terror at the hungry stare of the brown eyes that studied her.
"Well, good to know that I have not lost my edge when it comes to stealth even at my old age and shape. I can still sneak up on the best of them," the officer chuckled, a sinister smirk curling the corner of his mouth.
In a blink, Zuegler was atop the girl as she fought to turn onto her back and rise. Pressing the whole of his weight down on her while pinning her arms in a tight grasp with his hands, he removed a thick wind of fabric that he effectively stuffed into her mouth to cut off the scream that began to rip from her chest. "Shh," he grinned. "None of that now, or I will have to finish you before I have had my fun."
Frantic, Anna worked through the pain that had stunned her and wiggled as best she could underneath her attacker. Her muffled cries and hollers were of little aid over the pounding of the rain and steady rolls of thunder. Simply overpowered, she felt her arms being slammed together as the First Scout made fast and effective work of binding her wrists together.
If she could only get a leg free, or an arm... anything! All that she had to do was get to the blade hidden high up her left right arm.
Growling deeply when her attacker's head was close enough, the archer gave everything she had to push her chest up in a flash to butt him hard with her forehead. The blow was enough when it hit the officer's jaw that he reeled back with a loud yell of pain as blood gushed from his mouth. "You 'lil bitch!" he mumbled as a cry while his hand shot up to cover his cut lips.
That momentary state of shock was enough for Anna to take advantage to worm herself free. Kicking at her release, she managed to get to her feet and began to run, turning her head to spit out the wad from her mouth. "Somebody help me!" she screamed into the woods just as her legs were pulled out from under and behind her.
Slamming down to the ground that consisted of moss and gravel, the archer's teeth rattled from the blow that she took to the bottom of her chin that was sliced when she landed with a loud grunt. At the slam, her vision blurred and she fought the dark edges that threatened to close in on her consciousness.
"Yes, that is the spirit, girl," Robert snickered darkly as he grabbed his prey's legs "Just as it should be, the girl calling for the help of the men. A lovely little one like yourself is only meant to serve one purpose." Brown eyes narrowing, he hissed, "And that purpose is not as a knight!"
Taking hold of her wiggling waist, he dragged her back towards him across the coarse dirt, scraping the right side of her face that was pressed against it. When she moved against him, he quickly spun her onto her back again, held her bound wrists to the ground over her head and whirled his free right hand around to hit the left side of her face, the punch landing by the corner of her eye to further disorient her.
In a full-body reel from the shot, Anna's eyes rolled back in her head and her bleeding bottom lip fell open in a sharp gasp. Numb and limp on the ground, she was only vaguely aware that a pair of hands were working to tear at the collar of her purple tunic. Trying hard to both stay awake and make her body respond in anyway, she fought for air through the thick rain drops that fell through the breaks in the trees above.
The prone archer heard sound of tearing material at her sleeves to give way to her smooth arms, felt the tight grasp on her exposed collarbone and shoulders. This could not be happening... she could not let this happen. Not while there was still life in her.
Life meant that there was still fight left. That was one of the first things that her father taught her. And for a knight, there was no giving up. Not until their end.
Right now, the First Scout was a occupied, convinced that he would not have to worry about any further struggle anytime soon. Anna was going to use that to her advantage, keeping still and quiet on the forest floor with her head still turned away and eyes staring ahead of her into the trees.
Eventually her attacker would have to make himself vulnerable. It might only last a moment, but she was going to use that time to her full advantage when it came. Keeping herself calm, her breathing evened out to further feign that she was out of her senses from the onslaught that she had received. But the reality of the situation was that she could not have been thinking more clearly... could not have been more alert.
Zuegler was convinced that he had her. He did not have her. Not now and not ever.
Chuckling, the brute wiped at the blood pooling into his thick beard and stated, "You have far too many who would like to see you gone, girly. When you turn up missing, no one would think to question a revered officer like myself. This little love wound can be easily explained away as my peers trust me completely." He checked his captive over to see that she was not responding as she would if she had her wits about her.
"But first," he hummed when he leaned in close enough for a long whiff from her neck, "I have been looking forward to this for many years now." Sitting himself up, he reached around his large gut to work at the thick belt around his pants.
It was the opening that Anna had been waiting for. Little was the scout clearly aware of the jagged rocks that she had been careful to shift under her tied wrists. Moving her arms back and forth so slowly that it went completely undetected, she could feel the edges of the stone working away the fibers of the knot.
While she would never have enough time to break completely through, she knew she only needed the bind weakened when the time came. Just another inch and she could work her hands free.
The chilling, quiet laughter from Zuegler resumed when he needed to look down to work his belt free beneath the bulge of his round belly. Fraise swallowed roughly in hearing his pants lowering. "Now, just stay like this and it will not be so bad for you," he smirked.
Holding in her building rage, the girl kept her focus on what she needed to do. Now that the attention was back on her, she had to stop shifting her arms. But she was confident that she was able to make a good enough go at her bondage. That was when she felt the weight of the knight leave her pelvis for a moment so that he could remove his pants further.
...Then he would work at her clothes.
Not about to give him the satisfaction, Anna snapped her head back up along with her hips to send both her knees sailing upward into her assailant's exposed crotch before he even knew what was happening. His eyes wide, Robert released a choked off yell as he fell over in mind-numbing pain.
Springing to her feet, the archer growled in effort to pull her wrists apart enough to loosen the knot around them enough to finally slip her hands free. The moment the dark fabric fell away, she found herself clawing, punching and kicking at the man that had pulled himself together enough to launch himself at her.
It was, however, too late for him, no matter how he fought back. The tops of the teenager's sleeves were gripped and pulled on hard enough that they ended up hanging by their threads in the struggle before a fast claw to the face had Zuegler falling back with a scream as he reached up for his marred face.
That backing gave Anna the heartbeat that she needed to reach for the now exposed knife strapped to her exposed left upper arm. Crying out when the blade was pulled from its sheath, she charged with blazing flames of vengeance in her glaring eyes. She brought the weapon down without pause and it came up against something solid that her downward slash continued straight through.
In the heat of the battle, Fraise had no idea where the weapon struck, but it was enough to make her attacker wail and react in blind defense. Another blow to the face had the girl falling back once more, but Robert was off in a flash before she could collect herself.
Sprawled out on the ground on her right side, the archer panted heavily as she watched the First Scout running as fast as his plump legs could carry him.
The flashes of lightning revealed the course that he was taking through the rest of the woods. Since there was not a known way out the way he was headed, it was evident that he knew of a way out of the encampment that not many others did.
Despite the aches that it caused, Anna grunted in the effort of pushing herself back up to her feet. Glaring at the retreating back of Zuegler like a drenched wild animal, she was about to take off after him to finish what she had begun when a strange, distant howl stopped her cold with wide eyes.
The howl grew in volume as it seemed to rush in her direction and it was more than evident that it was not being caused by the wind. Whatever was causing it was something very much living... and it was not human. But there was no question by the addition of a penetrating growl that it was something that could tear her flesh to the bone.
And yet... Anna was stricken by how she did not have a single twinge of fear. Then it was right over her, completely obscured by the trees and the night only to shoot past and fade off in the same course that the First Scout had taken before it faded away on the gusting air.
Even stranger to the archer when the sound vanished was not how she had not feared whatever caused it... but it was the strange rise of emptiness that she felt when it vanished.
Her blue eyes still wide and her body unmoving long after she was alone, Fraise began to feel her body shaking when the reality of everything that had just happened hit her. Against the rise of bile that shot up into her mouth, a loud whimper broke from her as she shot a hand up to cover her bleeding mouth and kept the contents of her stomach down.
Never before had Anna thought that she would have to defend herself in such a way against an officer... especially one as respected as Zuegler. Every feeling, scent and smell of him came rushing back and her legs began to falter as she stumbled.
Catching the trunk of the nearest tree, the archer's breath came in anxious, ragged pulls. Swallowing roughly, she closed her eyes and forced herself to get herself together.
She was not a victim. She could have the others think that she was a victim, or everything that she had worked so hard for would have been in vain. Weakness meant that every officer and knight-in-training who had doubted her would be right about a female in their ranks.
That simply could not happen. One way or the other, Anna knew that she had to collect herself.
No doubt the classroom would be filled by the time she reached it and she would not the first one there, as she normally was. Heero and Wufei would be worried about her.
Wufei. Oh, Creator, how badly she needed to see him.
Taking a slow, deep breath, Anna righted herself when she felt that her legs had unlocked themselves. Finally sure and steady again, she ran a hand over the weeping cuts at the right side of her face. She could feel her left eye beginning to swell from the punch that nearly took her out.
As much as she would have loved to clean herself and change into something that had not been nearly shredded from her, there was no time. Class was about to start and she was going to be late.
The officers did not approve of tardiness.
Releasing a deep sigh, Fraise cleaned her blood-covered dagger and returned it to its sheath against her smooth left arm. Quickly gathering up her bow and quiver, Fraise gathered up the arrows strewn about.
When she moved for the ones closest to the point of the attack, she paused half-crouched over when her gaze fell on something out of place on the ground only a few feet away.
At recognizing what the small folds of flesh belonged to, a smirk curved its way across her face as she snorted, "Well, that son of a bitch will not be getting very far without that."
* * * * * *
Moments later, Wufei fumed his way into the stable with Heero beside him. When they stepped into the shelter, they removed the hoods of their cloaks to reveal their reddened faces and heated glares as they hurried for the back stalls.
Peacemillion and the other dragons that they passed raised their heads over their walls and doors to watch the knights-in-training with mixes of keen interest and concern in sensing their unusually seething rage.
Chang's heated gaze fell to the end of the stretch of closed off stables and gritted out, "Nataku!"
"Wing!" Yuy shouted in kind. "We have work to do!" Their dragon's heads rose with blinking eyes. Practically panting when he entered his white steed's stall, Heero peered up at them and announced in a growl, "Anna was attacked."
Chirping in alarm, Nataku pressed her head down towards her rider as he neared her. Gently patting the end of her muzzle, Wufei sighed to the wide crystalline eyes, "She is fine, but the bastard that was after her ran off. We have direct orders from Captain Fraise to bring him back in." Instantly, the green dragon's worried eyes shifted to narrow as she snorted out a puff of black smoke.
An enraged snort escaping him, Wing's neck curled upward while he lowered himself to grant Heero an easy way up into his saddle. "We need to head to the healing station just beyond the encampment," the boy ordered as he harnessed himself in. "And we need to make it fast." Nodding firmly, his steed moved out of his stall with Nataku right behind.
Within seconds, they were sailing into the storm. Covering his head with his hood again, Wufei gripped his handhold in tight fists as his dragon soared up beside Wing. "Why in the Creator's name did I question my instincts when it came to Zuegler?" he hissed.
Shaking his head, Heero peered over to his brother and told him, "Do not blame yourself for this. No one would have believed that he was capable of this. Commander Lowe and Captain Fraise missed plenty of signs, I am sure, but that does not make what happened any fault of theirs, either."
"Right," Chang relented, still staring ahead through the darkness that was broken by the occasional stream of lightning.
The blame needed to fall where it belonged and that was solely with Robert Zuegler. He was the one who had pinned Anna down to the ground, had caused her face to be as bruised and bloodied as it was when she came into the lecture room that morning. It was the First Scout who had torn her tunic to near shreds, leaving more marks on her collarbone and shoulders from where he had grabbed her.
As those visions and thoughts flooded his mind, the Capricorn native's blood only boiled all the more. Teeth clenching, his hands gripped his saddle's handhold all the tighter. Captain Fraise had been more than good in sending him and Heero off to deliver their form of justice. It was just a pity that they were going to have to keep him alive so that the Sanq law makers would put him away.
Heero looked back to his 'brother' and smirked, "Too bad Anna saved us the honor of castrating the son of a bitch." That was enough to momentarily break Chang from those dark images of the archer's state and he chuckled.
Any further discussion was ended as the pair knew that they were closing in on the residence of the First Scout's closest healing friend. Below them, the openings in the woods beyond the encampment were beginning to break in large clearings where those who worked for the knights resided.
Catching the first glimpse of a familiar, lone house atop a hill, Wufei growled, "There it is." He rose as tall as he could in his harness and shouted, "Let's go, girl!"
Well ahead of him, Nataku hissed while her wings tilted to change the direction of the wind beneath them to descend in a sharp nosedive for the estate with Wing following suit beside her. In their fall from the skies, Yuy and Chang removed their swords, never tearing their glaring eyes from the house that they were quickly approaching.
Then... in the light of the next streaks of lightning that branched through the clouds above them, they caught the glimpse of something that had otherwise been completely hidden from their sight at the bottom of the hill. And it only took that glimpse for the riders to recognize the massive being to be that of a dragon.
Completely taken aback, Heero and Wufei blinked in surprise along with their steeds. Zuegler did not have a dragon of his own that there should be one waiting for him. Before either of them could comment on the unexpected find, they closed in close enough to see in the next flash that the blue-purple beast was glaring heatedly at something that he had pinned to the ground beneath its front right claw.
Frowning in confusion, the swordsmen stared at the sight before them as their dragons made a smooth landing only a few feet away. Cautiously, Yuy and Chang unlatched their harnesses to descend to the muddy ground. Both keeping their weapons at the ready, they slowly approached the snarling creature.
What they could now see was a male, blue-purple dragon with not a single horn. Instead, it bore a great fan of a shield that rounded the back of its massive head with sharp white spikes that capped where its folds connected. It's long back was hunched over and his snarling snout was lowered to keep just above its opened claw.
Brilliant green eyes glowed in the telltale that it was not exactly happy with what it was watching so closely... if the occasional growl and snap that it gave off was not enough of a hint of that.
And keeping as low to the ground as he could where he lay on his back trapped in that claw was the sniveling First Scout, Zuegler. Swallowing roughly as he whimpered and shook, the man's wide and shimmering eyes stared up at his captor. Any sound that he made was answered with a none-too-kind response from the dragon holding him.
Their guard beginning to waver on account of their surprise, Heero and Wufei lowered their weapons. Not about to look away from such an enraged beast, Chang continued to stare at the dragon and muttered, "How do you suppose he got involved in this?"
"I do not know," Yuy replied just as softly and also making sure to not look away. "However, I am not complaining as it seems he stopped our friend from escaping.
Sure enough, they could occasionally make out by Robert's squirming that he was wearing a fresh pair of trousers that bore not a drop of blood. No doubt given to him after he was healed by his friend. Suddenly, the dragon broke from his focused anger to turn his head in the direction of the voices.
Quickly raising their weapons again, the knights-in-training watched in wonder as the glow to the green eyes on them instantly faded and a wide smile curled along the creature's muzzle. It's long tail flapped in a dragon's gesture that only came from recognition.
And that recognition only meant one thing.
"You are Anna's steed," Wufei breathed, his dark eyes wide as his arms fell to his sides along with Heero's. Chirping brightly, the beast's smile grew and he wiggled from how rapidly his tail thumped along the ground. When he looked up, his large green eyes blinked widely when they fell on Nataku as she and Wing smiled in greeting.
Laughing, Heero walked up to their new friend and praised, "Nice catch there, boy. I do hope that you would not mind our stepping in to have a shot at your prize." Rather than mind, Anna's steed smirked and gave the scared First Scout another snarl before he raised his claw.
Quickly scrambling away from the creature, Zuegler watched his young apprentices and panic filled his brown eyes at the glares that they leveled him with.
Just like that, he found himself actually favoring what his fate would have been in the talons of the dragon as opposed to what Yuy and Chang seemed to have planned for him.
Peering over his shoulder, Heero told his 'brother', "I am going to have some words with his friend before I have him taken in for questioning regarding his aiding an attempted rapist and murderer." His cobalt eyes falling back on the stricken officer, he hissed, "Be sure to save some of the fun for me."
A cold smirk tugging the corner of his lips, Wufei never peered away from Zuegler as he nodded firmly, "Of course."
The agreement set, Yuy headed for Wing to return to his saddle. Cracking his knuckles, Wufei stalked towards the quivering bear of a man and sneered, "I think I will start with repaying you for Anna's black eye."
TBC...
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